Can we have slow methodical gameplay from act 1 back please?

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The point is to become more powerful so you can kill more powerful enemies. What's the point of having over 1000 enemy types if you never interact with any of them and all of them die in a single hit offscreen? You might as well just replace all of them with A1 zombies and no one will notice a difference. In a normal game you get more powerful items to fight monsters that are also more powerful which you wouldn't be able to kill without good items (or will have a lot of trouble).

Yep. And the only game that did it right from start to the end was Diablo 1. That was brilliant game in many aspects people don't even know or remember.

Every level (area) there you meet more and more dangerous enemies. They all behave differently instead of just rushing at you or shooting at you. This is so cool.

Unique monsters and their minions were not just regular ones with stupid added affixes like in all later arpgs, but had distinct unique behavior and, sometimes, unique abilities. It amazes me how BlizzNorth devs completely lost this cool feature in D2 already.

I find that a huge chunk of players came to poe 2 (me included) because we saw the videos of this slower and methodical gameplay, but the instant we reach endgame its exactly like poe 1 again.
People might find it disappointing at best and false advertising at worst.
And furthermore what i dont understand is, many people are here from poe 1, so if they want the same game why not just go play poe 1 and leave this slower paced version for rest of people?
Souls like games are a perfect example how you can feel powerful in the end game but still feel ovewhelmed if theres one too many enemies. Were not blasting away 30 black knights with a push of a button there.

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And furthermore what i dont understand is, many people are here from poe 1, so if they want the same game why not just go play poe 1 and leave this slower paced version for rest of people?

It gets worse. They can't go play PoE1 because the game-play and progression loop is so boring that no one will play it for more than a couple weeks after a new wipe. PoE1 normally gets updated every 4 months, but is being delayed due to the resource drain of GGG launching a separate new game. The PoE1 for lifers are only playing PoE2 cause their "better" game-play is too boring to go back to.

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Azimuthus#1135 wrote:

Yep. And the only game that did it right from start to the end was Diablo 1. That was brilliant game in many aspects people don't even know or remember.

Yep. And the only way that was possible is because there was nothing but campaign. And there was nothing bad with that. Grim Dawn did the same as far as I remember - haven't played it for a long time.

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Sqarpi#7850 wrote:

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Lebotsumaru#5011 wrote:

Act 1 was the freshest experience I've ever had in an ARPG. It was slow, methodical, and calculative, and combined with the WASD + dodge mechanics, it worked brilliantly. With proper positioning and dodging, it was even possible to defeat Geonor at level 16. It felt like playing Elden Ring within an arpg.

However, by the time you reach endgame T15 mapping, the gameplay takes a completely different turn. At this stage, you're either expected to one-shot everything or be overwhelmed and killed by mobs. The slow and strategic approach of Act 1 is abandoned in favor of frantic, high-paced combat. Honestly, this change begins to show as early as Act 3 Cruel. At this point, the game feels like it's in a "Frankenstein" state, with the campaign heading in one direction while Cruel and mapping take a completely different path.

It would be incredible if the devs revisited the direction they embraced in Act 1 and brought more of that deliberate, tactical gameplay into the later stages of the game.

+1 to that. I do not like zoom-zooming from PoE 1 and I would like to feel heaviness of the fight, as it is on the early stage of the storyline in the PoE 2.

Maybe you should go play dark soul ?

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Yep. And the only way that was possible is because there was nothing but campaign.

I would say "because how the game is structured". Pattern is -- new (harder) area, new types of monsters. PoE2 campaign and even endgame can also do that, this is not something impossible.

But GGG approach is completely different: throw all kinds of monsters at us at once, even randomly. This alone doesn't add to tactical gameplay. In Diablo 1 every new area introduces 2 (more often) or sometimes (rarely) 3-4 types of monsters. And you have to learn how to deal with this setup in general and these monster types individually. For example, in caves we have Petrified Gargoyles (sitting on one place and slowly advancing if disturbed) and rushing Rhinoceros. So you learn to stay away from Gargoyle packs until all nearby Rhinoceros are defeated, otherwise you'll be in a trouble. Still, you learn how to avoid Rhinoceros' attacks because standing in 1 place is a very bad idea. In PoE though they throw at us too much at once so the only tactic is "kill with AOE as fast as possible", and, sometimes, use dodgeroll to avoid projectiles. We don't learn how to deal with each enemy type, because there are so many and most of them are too fast even to start doing something. Even though they do something different - it all does not matter, we don't have time to understand their attacks and respond in some distinct way. And this is bad. And this is because how POE is structured - both in campaign and endgame (especially endgame maps).

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muffmon#2607 wrote:

And furthermore what i dont understand is, many people are here from poe 1, so if they want the same game why not just go play poe 1 and leave this slower paced version for rest of people?

God I want to so bad but GGG don't want to, I really want both I loved the slow methodical act 1 type on my first character but once i got to zoom central I just wanted to play PoE1 because its a superior product except graphically.

Either way you can't give PoE1 players stick for this only GGG themselves.

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Either way you can't give PoE1 players stick for this only GGG themselves.

Facts. If GGG ends up over-zooming PoE2 thinking they are catering to the PoE1 enjoyers then they don't know what either player-base wants, somehow.

Fingers crossed we don't see some bullshit announcement later where GGG says "teehee yeah we are only doing content for PoE2 now so everyone has to share seats on this ride".

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hereatha#1693 wrote:

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Sqarpi#7850 wrote:

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Lebotsumaru#5011 wrote:

Act 1 was the freshest experience I've ever had in an ARPG. It was slow, methodical, and calculative, and combined with the WASD + dodge mechanics, it worked brilliantly. With proper positioning and dodging, it was even possible to defeat Geonor at level 16. It felt like playing Elden Ring within an arpg.

However, by the time you reach endgame T15 mapping, the gameplay takes a completely different turn. At this stage, you're either expected to one-shot everything or be overwhelmed and killed by mobs. The slow and strategic approach of Act 1 is abandoned in favor of frantic, high-paced combat. Honestly, this change begins to show as early as Act 3 Cruel. At this point, the game feels like it's in a "Frankenstein" state, with the campaign heading in one direction while Cruel and mapping take a completely different path.

It would be incredible if the devs revisited the direction they embraced in Act 1 and brought more of that deliberate, tactical gameplay into the later stages of the game.

+1 to that. I do not like zoom-zooming from PoE 1 and I would like to feel heaviness of the fight, as it is on the early stage of the storyline in the PoE 2.

Maybe you should go play dark soul ?

Poe 2 campaign (Acts 1-3) is not Dark souls. It is, for the most part, pretty easy. Bosses can absolutely brick you for sure, but generally it's just smooth, engaging gameplay. You don't have to come up with some strategy for how you're going to engage a specific pack, you just have to watch out for the odd mechanic and hit a fairly generous dodge roll.

There is a lot of ground between poe 1 endgame and Dark souls. A LOT. Like 99% of games.

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LVSviral#3689 wrote:

Fingers crossed we don't see some bullshit announcement later where GGG says "teehee yeah we are only doing content for PoE2 now so everyone has to share seats on this ride".

They may extend the leagues of both games until they hire enough people to do both games. But that's me coping. Never saw anything good come from splitting your attention directing/developing 2 or more games. They'll either end up with the same games, both flopping due to burnout, or they find someone to direct their older game.